Come What May
by shamaho
Summary: An ending has been changed and so will many lives.DennisKathy, some RoyceKathy


_Come What May_

_Chapter One_

_Bolero _

_Disclaimer- I did not write or compose the song Come What May, and I do not own the characters of Thir13en Ghosts, nor do I own the ghosts names or back stories. _

_Rating- M, for violence, vulgar swearing, gore and sexual situations._

_Notes: POV will change from none to several different people, you will be notified of this change. If you should notice any mistakes concerning a ghost, please let me know, I did not access the feature on the DVD, rather I am reading this stuff from Rotten Tomatoes._

_Summary- An ending is changed and so are several lives, Dennis Rafkin does not die but Arthur Kriticos does, and because of an overly big thirst for power, the machine fails, but Dennis and Arthur's children are forced to live in the big glass house with Cyrus, and a lot of ghosts. _

_Pairings: Kathy/Dennis, some Kathy/Royce_

* * *

_Never knew, I could_

_Feel like this_

_Like I've never seen the sky, before_

* * *

_Denny? C'mon Denny, think, THINK dammit, do you really wanna die? Not that you have any choice at this point, you dumb fuck. You're a smart kid, aren't you willing to do anything to get out of this? What CAN happen?_

A flash in the corner of the bleeding psychic's eye caught his attention, he turned his head and watched the glass fall and shatter on the ground as Arthur ran for the gigantic beast, who dropped Dennis before any permanent damage was caused and went for the older man.

"Shit! Arthur, no! Your kids! What the fuck . . .?"

It was too late, Dennis watched as the older man close his eyes, resigned, and was crushed by the specter duo. It was over. Blood seeped from the lifeless skull and Dennis felt sick, but that probably wasn't why, his injuries were extensive, and painful. He watched Arthur's corpse hit the floor, his skull had split with the pressure, and his brain tissue was starting to seep onto the floor, feeling close to vomiting, Dennis decided to split. He picked up a large fragment of the glass and fended off those, and other spirits as he did his best to run to the kids, who sat in the middle of that wretched machine.

Arthur's lifeless corpse was presented to Cyrus by George, thrown into the machine, the rotating orbs slowed to a non-lethal rhythm, Dennis hurried to the crying kids and grabbed them close, they stared in horror as the machine hummed demonically, but suddenly, it stopped. A smile crept onto Dennis face, ever so slight, sure, the machine would have worked, if Cyrus wasn't so damned power hungry to spill his own blood and murder one who had truly loved him.

Idiot.

He brought the kids closer to him as they cried, Kathy wasn't as loud as Bobby and after a moment she pulled away and dried her face, tried to be strong for her little brother. "C'mere kiddo." She pulled him close and rocked him, Dennis watched sadly until an ambulance, called by Cyrus, and police cars arrived, he knew what the old psychotic was doing, but he knew he and the kids needed to be looked at.

* * *

"Your honor I object! These kids need to go to a good home, it's in that fucking house that all this shit happened!"

"_MR_. Rafkin, may I remind you Mr. Kriticos is their only living relative? And also where do you suggest they go otherwise? With you? Your income is pathetic, your space is small and you have no prior history with children!"

Tear reddened blue eyes met those of the old, tired judge. "I could give them love, your honor. He could never give them that."

"Unfortunately, true as that may or may not be, we will have to rule in favor of Mr. Kriticos, however, we also rule that Mr. Rafkin be allowed to live with them, for the benefit of the children, unless of course, you want to contest, Mr. Kriticos?"

Cyrus smiled warmly towards the two orphans, who looked to the sympathetic and kind Dennis with horror. "Of course not, I have plenty of room for all three."

"All right then, this court is adjourned."

* * *

Kathy eyed the monstrous glass structure as she walked with Bobby's hand tucked tightly within her own, each carrying a single bag. Dennis was shortly next to them, his first thought was to grab them and run, but the last thing he needed right now was the law up on his ass. He sighed deeply and gently ushered the siblings to the door, he pulled a key from his pocket and shoved it into the slot, some rumbling and clinking ensued, and they were allowed in, on a table was three pairs of glasses with a note.

_These will come in handy. _

Dennis felt his blood run cold and slid the glasses on, looked to the kids, who tentatively picked up a pair, before actually sliding them on, he began to skim the writing on the wall, it was different, but he wasn't sure how. He slowly looked around and nearly shit himself when he saw the Torn Prince smiling at him from the door into the actual house, bat in hand.

"H-o-ho-hol-holy shit!" He made to run but the shade grabbed his arm.

"Cool it, Rafkin. I'm here to take you all on the guided tour, dig?"

"Wh-wha-what?"

The more dead of the four rolled his eyes. "Said, I'ma take you on a tour. Name's Royce by the way, Royce Clayton." he smiled charmingly towards Kathy, who was smiling back girlishly. A stab of jealousy shot through Dennis, tho he wasn't sure why. She was pretty, and charming, but he'd never even considered . . .

"All right, y'all follow me and don't mind the dead guys, the spells have changed and we can walk around now, but contact is limited. I'll tell you everyone's name's as we go." He led them through the foyer into the parlor, Dennis felt his stomach turned when he saw the Jackal, sitting on the couch like it was nothing. "That's Ryan Khun." Royce told them, Ryan raised his eyes and grinned at Dennis. "Hey, hey, if it isn't Mr. Ghostbuster! And the kids, I must admit, the girl looks better with her clothes ripped up."

"Stuff it, asshole." Dennis hissed, Royce decided it was time to move on. They walked to Kathy's room, and Dennis felt hid eyebrow lift when they saw the Angry Princess there, staring at her reflection in the gigantic mirror. She turned and looked cautiously at them. "Oh, hello Royce."

"Dana." Royce greeted, introduced them to her. "Dana Newman." The nude ghost smiled at Kathy softly. "We've met before."

"We have?"

"Well, I've seen you before. Oh, Royce, George wanted to talk to you, something about Arthur."

"Arthur?" Dennis asked, nearly breathless. "The man who died here?"

"Yeah, he's here now, with his wife." Any grieving in the trio's heart passed then, knowing Jean and Arthur were finally together again. Dennis smiled to himself, looked to Kathy, who quickly looked away from him, he was about to ask her something when he decided to drop it.

They met all the other ghosts, a tearful reunion for the kids with their parents. Then Royce led them to the study, where Cyrus awaited them at his desk, writing on some paper. He looked up at them. "Ah, I see you're through, excuse me a moment while I write out this check, it's for your services, Dennis, just as I promised."

Dennis, for once in his life was speechless. He fumbled to find something to say but before he could the check was being slid into his hand, he met Cyrus friendly looking eyes and frowned. "Why, you wanted me dead."

"I didn't want YOU dead, but you would have gotten in the way. Now I have no chance, you know I can't build that goddamn machine again."

"Yeah, so why are you still holding the ghosts captive?"

Cyrus did not answer, he turned away and greeted the less than enthusiastic children, and after a few minutes of listening to him ramble some sappy story about wanting to get to know them, they went to their rooms, Dennis was about to stay behind to talk to Cyrus, but changed his mind and he too went to his room.

* * *

_Dennis POV, one hour later_.

I came out of the room and shut the door, it was boring me already, and I had to get on my feet and find something to do. So I went back downstairs and found Kathy in the kitchen, sitting on a stool, reading something, Dana was talking to her from behind the counter, one of the friendlier ghosts, I decided. I realized I had become a wallflower in the doorway, so hands in pockets I walked up to them and smiled softly when Kathy looked up to me. "Hey." It was a soft greeting, I barely knew her and if she was one of my friends, it would have been a whoop and holler hello.

To my surprise, she blushed, and smiled back. "Hi. Bored?"

"Immensely. Is there anything to actually do around here?"

Dana spoke up now, sat on another stool and crossed her legs, raised and rested them on the counter. "Not really, Cyrus likes his quiet. When he isn't here tho, music is fun, Ryan's fantastic on Piano. Or there's always the electronic stuff you guys have, ya know?"

I nodded, pulled one hand from a pocket and adjusted the glasses. "So um, you ok, Kathy?"

"Can't really complain. I'm not homeless and this is a nice place, are you ok? You look a little pale." She shifted slightly and looked straight into my searching eyes, I was searching for her mood, but it was so difficult to read. If only having clairvoyance could tell me that.

"Dennis?"

My head snapped up and I realized I had zoned out, I felt red threaten to overrun my face but quickly pushed the feeling away. "Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Not my favorite house but the company is infinitely better than last time." I laughed nervously, saw Dana eying us and felt my embarrassment heighten when she stood and said. "Well, I think I'll go see what the others are up to. Ciao."

Oh crap.

Kathy watched her strut off and turned back to me, a grin on her face, something I wasn't quite sure how to read. Again, dammit, will you let me know what you're feeling!

"You know something Dennis, I realized you were a bit different but um, you've really got a thing for bright red shirts, dontcha?"

I raised an eyebrow, then looked down at my shirt, felt it, and felt my face match it's tone, I looked up at her helplessly, unable to speak for the billionth time that day.

She laughed at me.

"Oh, it's not a bad thing. It really suits you, your eyes look fabulous with it, that deep, crystalline blue with that hot fiery red . ." With the last few words she drew closer, tangled her fingers in the collar and smiled softly, I was still speechless, but my breathing had grown deep, this day I had experienced feelings I had been to afraid to look for with her, and it was driving me insane, how quickly we were latching on, but I didn't want it to stop.

"Mmm, yes, calm, stay calm. You get so damn uptight, I like it when you're mellow like this. Y'ever seen Scooby-Doo, Dennis?"

"Uh-huh." What the fuck did she expect other than that? She was breathing on my chest and touching me.

"Very articulate. You know Shaggy?"

"Yeah."

"That's better. Let's just say you would make a fabulous Shaggy if they made a live action movie."

"I resent that." Ah, much better, I could speak!

She giggled and I gasped when I felt air hit my collarbone, I looked down and saw she'd hacked open the first couple of buttons, I wasn't sure if I could handle this, she wasn't quite 18 yet. But her mouth hit my skin and I had to suck for breath, leaned back against the fridge, breathing hard enough to pass out from lack of oxygen. She smiled against my skin and nuzzled, nipped lightly. "Did I surprise you?"

"We can't, Kathy, your . . .ugh, God! Your parents, and you're so young . . ."

"I'm 17."

"And I could get thrown in prison!" I gasped, managing to shove her away. "This is all going way too fast, you need to just slow down a little, we still have to explore this." Breathing heavily I looked into her surprised eyes. "I don't want this to go the wrong way."

* * *

He found himself in his room an hour later, face down on the bed, cursing at himself. He slammed his hands down on the mattress a few times and rolled off, hit the floor with a thud.

"Uh oh, you haven't died have you?" He gazed up at the spirit that entered quietly, smiled softly.

"Hey asswipe." Arthur glared at him, then chuckled. "I'll give you an 'asswipe', boy! How are you adjusting?"

"Peachy, I think the kids are gonna be fine . . ."

"That's nice, Dennis, but I didn't ask about the kids, I asked about YOU."

He didn't have he guts to tell him about the scenario in the kitchen. "I'm fine, as long as they're fine. I don't trust Cyrus as far as I could throw him. And I don't trust these ghosts either." He looked up at Arthur and saw he was receiving another dirty look. "Dammit, you know what I mean."

"Look Dennis, you just need to take it easy, Jean and I are here, you've got somebody, and we need someone to watch over the kids that can BE THERE for them! You know?"

Dennis sighed, shook his head, his thoughts straying to Kathy again. "I don't know if I can, Arthur, it's gotten very complicated since we got here."

"Kathy's young and confused, Dennis. I doubt it'll last long, or turn into anything, but don't you dare do any of the experimenting she needs to do." With that, Arthur left, and Dennis could hardly wipe away the shock on his face. He grinned, shook it away and got up to go see what Bobby was up to.

* * *


End file.
